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Like cake? Love cake? But feel a little guilty when you eat it? Have no fear! My loaf is here! This Pear, Raspberry and Macadamia Loaf is totally guilt free, low in added sugar and loaded with healthy goodies like chia, buttermilk and raspberries.

Not too long ago Legoman and I sat down to do a cupboard clear out in our kitchen. A whole bunch of unfun was had. But, I did realise we had a lot of certain things. Apparently I hoard almond meal, carob powder, pasta and macadamias. There are worse things I could be hoarding! Don’t judge me!

Macadamias are Australia’s gift to the land of nuts. They are a little buttery ball of good fats, antioxidants and even have natural plant sterols to keep your cholesterol in check. Plus, they’re Australian so of course they’re wonderful! They work beautifully into both sweet and savoury dishes (did someone say Macadamia crusted fish??). Next time you’re out shopping, try some macadamias and try not to eat them all before you bake this Pear, Raspberry and Macadamia Loaf!

The day I baked this was our local Winter Magic Festival which is held each year to celebrate the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. It is such an amazing outpouring of community spirit and love. This year was the first year I haven’t gone in a while, but I was feeling very pregnant and very uncomfortable that day. So I baked instead (and did laundry, cleaned the toilets, did the dishes….). But gorgeous Legoman and Possum had a fab morning together. Here’s a little happy snap of Possum in her get up. Dressed proudly by daddy! She said she was a strawberry, and apparently I was a rainbow. Love her so much!

6. Pour into a baking tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Check with a skewer. Allow to cool before chowing down!

And just an aside, I’ve been having a local tour of local hospitals the past few days thanks to by placenta previa. This has left Legoman flying solo with Possum at home. He sent me this picture of our kitchen tonight. It looks AMAZING! And I just want to publicly say a HUGE thankyou to my husband for being such a wonderful support for me and such a loving daddy to our Possum. I love you Legoman! xxx

Like this:

Ahhhh sweet summer nights, sipping Pina Colada’s on a beach front somewhere wonderful… all just a dream for this heavily pregnant mother of a toddler! Doesn’t mean I can’t bake some super tasty muffins! Because cocktails and muffins totally compare. Excuse me while I go sob in the corner for a moment…. Rightio! Back again! This pregnant mumma is also living in the icy start of winter, where our pipes are already starting to freeze in the mornings and our windscreens need to be scraped of ice before driving anywhere. So sure, why not tropicana on your tastebuds! Liven things up!

These Pina Colada Muffins are a delicious combination of some of my favourite things.

Coconut, lots of coconut.

Pineapple. Mmmmmmmm

Lime. Sweet, sweet (or sour) lime.

Plus a few other healthy yummos like chia seeds, yoghurt and banana to make these Pina Colada Muffins totally guilt free. They are both egg free and nut free making them perfect for school lunches and toddler afternoon teas. And with only 2 Tbsp of coconut sugar added you can confidently even give these as a little baby led weaning treat too!

I have really wonderful memories of sipping Pina Colada’s on Tonsai Beach in Thailand, with the freshest of fresh coconut and pineapple in them. Swinging in a hammock. Watching the lightning flash across the ocean. Off I go day dreaming again…

These Pina Colada Muffins are quite a moist mix so when baking make sure to give them a little skewer test to check if they are done. I had to keep putting them back in the first round, I think I was a bit too excited to try them!

7. Spoon into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, check with a skewer that they are cooked right through as this is quite a moist mixture.

I had to add in this photo of the pineapple pieces. The sunshine through the bowl was making such beautiful patterns. And that photo of the whisk is actually a colour photo, looks black and white. Pretty groovy 🙂 I hope these Pina Colada Muffins add some tropical sunshine to your day! Enjoy!

Birthday’s deserve cake, and it’s nice to know this Toddler Friendly Birthday Cake not only passed the picky toddler test, it also passed the tired hungry mum test! Hurray! One mummy friend shouted out “Can you blog this one? Little man is loving it!”.

This time two years ago I was swaying and vocalising my way through early labour. By 7:30 tomorrow morning I would’ve given birth to the most wonderful little bundle I have ever met. My gorgeous little Possum. What a proud mummy I am! This birthday, Possum specifically requested an apple cake, so her birthday cake was a Toddler Friendly Apple and Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.

Possum asked for there to be one red apple and one green apple in her cake, and I suggested a carrot (as she loves carrots) which she agreed whole heartedly. There was a decent meltdown over whether the gooey seeds (chia) would end up in the cake or in her belly, but a timely arrival of Grandpa and Grandma put all to rest *phew*. There’s some creamy buttermilk and just a touch of cinnamon to round off this moist yummy Toddler Friendly Birthday Cake. Of course this cake is egg free, as little Possum has an egg allergy. I think I’m getting the hang of this egg free baking now though!

We had a little party for our Birthday Girl today at our local park. A handful of happy chatty friends, a bevy of proud family to play and eat and giggle with our precious Possum. I have to say it was a lot more fun than her first birthday and much less emotional. It was so wonderful watching her play with her little buddies, hiding in bushes, sharing the swings, giving cuddles and kisses. What a wonderful age this is.

A big thankyou goes to my Mum who made the cream cheese icing at the last minute at my request. It really topped off this Toddler Friendly Birthday Cake! She recommends even adding a little lemon zest to give it some extra zing.

I hope you and your birthday toddler (or not so little person!) enjoy this cake as much as we did!

Toddler Friendly Birthday Cake aka Egg Free Apple and Carrot Cake

1 1/2 cups SR flour

1/2 cup almond meal

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 green apple, peeled and grated

1 red apple, peeled and grated

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp No Egg replacer with 2 Tbsp water (or use 1 egg)

2 Tbsp butter melted

2 Tbsp chia seeds soaked in 1/2 cup water for 15 minutes

ICING:

Philadelphia cream cheese

Pure cream

Caster sugar

Vanilla essence

Preheat Oven to 180°C fan forced/200°C conventional. Grease and line a spring form baking tin. Mix your chia and water and let sit for 15 mintues

In a seperate bowl, beat together your brown sugar, buttermilk, vanilla and No Egg (or 1 whole egg if no allergies).Add to your flour/apple mix. Stir through chia seeds and melted butter until all just combined.

Pour into your prepared baking tin and bake for 1 hour.

To make the icing, use a spoon to briskly mix together your cream cheese, cream, sugar and vanilla to suit your taste. (I think my Mum didn’t use a whole block of cream cheese…). Once the cake has cooled, spread icing over cake. Place as many candles as needed/wanted, sing, horray, cut and be merry!

Last night Legoman and I tackled the totally un-fun task of clearing out one of our food cupboards. This meant pulling everything out of the cupboard, checking used by dates and ingredients, and then either throwing out, giving away or putting it back in the cupboard. We hadn’t really done that since Possum was diagnosed with her allergies. Or since I started meal planning. And coming from a long line of hoarders, turns out we could have survived some kind of apocalyptic event just on the amount of almond meal I have stashed away….

So these delicious Carob Almond Poppy Biscuits were a result of all the wonderful things I rediscovered hiding in my cupboard! I found Carob Powder left over from doing the elimination diet with Possum, almond meal (lots of almond meal), poppy seeds and an awful lot of self raising flour.

Quite often when you mention carob people screw their faces up and remember the waxy little carob buds sold at school canteen’s across Australia in the 80s and 90s. But I have found the most delicious Australian made carob and it’s an absolute winner! I’m not paid to say how tasty it is (they don’t even know I exist!), but The Carob Kitchen’s carob products are to die for. Especially their Carob Almond Bar and their little Banjo Bars (which I often scoff after doing the grocery shopping!).Why carob? It’s gluten free, caffeine free (hello pregnancy and breastfeeding!) plus their bars have no added sugar or sweeteners as the carob is sweet enough. Winner!

I love the texture the Poppy Seeds add to these Carob Almond Poppy Biscuits. Little bursts of POP when you bite in. Yum! The little bit of cinnamon adds just a hint of spice and the combo of almond and butter gives them a certain richness.

So go clear out your cupboards! Who knows what you might find in there!

After Mother’s Day on Sunday you may have some roast pumpkin swimming around in your fridge. Or maybe you totally forgot Mother’s Day and are looking for a way to make it up to the person who gave you life! Either way, these Pumpkin Buttermilk Scones are delicious!

Mother’s Day was a bit of a non event in our house. Legoman went to work and Possum and I went to a birthday party. I did get to stay in bed an extra 30 minutes and we had croissants for breakfast. Win! Possum gave me a very sweet book called I Love You Mummy and Legoman gave me/us welding gloves, a small shovel and a metal bucket. Romance hey! The romantic thing is that they are all used with our fire place, and they have already been put to good use.

The scones were made for the birthday party Possum and I went to, which was a combined 2nd birthday party for Possum and a few of her little buddies. We had such an amazing afternoon on a friend’s property in the Kanimbla Valley. Amazing views, a beautiful large creek, heaps of space for happy toddlers plus we even all chipped in and got a jumping castle. Needless to say poor Possum was beyond tired by the time we got home. And the scones were a success!

These Pumpkin Buttermilk Scones are great for kids as they are low in sugar and actually have some veg in them. If you like you could play around with the buttermilk and pumpkin ratios if you want more pumpkin in there. Possum and I just had to do some quality control when they came out of the oven! Yummo!

Add flour, nutmeg, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Combine. Using your hands, rub the butter into the flour until the mix resembles fine bread crumbs (I used to love doing this as a kid growing up).

Make a well into the centre of mix. Add buttermilk and pumpkin. Use a butter knife to combine until it forms a sticky dough. Turn out onto a floured surface (also put a little flour on your hands). Knead gently until smooth.

Press out the dough until ~2cm thick. You can either cut into desired number of scones or use a cutter to make shapes (I did love hearts, surprise surprise!). Place the scones on the baking tray so that they are just touching. Brush the tops with some buttermilk.

Bake in the top half of the oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Serve with butter, ricotta or even mascarpone for a special touch of yum!

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What makes a tired toddler happy? Fresh out of the oven muffins made by mum! You know that something is going to be delicious when the raw batter smells AMAZING! This afternoon scrummy yummy was destined for my belly. We are very fortunate to have a beautiful and productive Jonathon Apple tree in our backyard. This year we have picked bucket loads of beautiful crispy, juicy apples. The season is all finished now and the final fruit were picked this week. They aren’t the prettiest of apples and some never really grew up, bit like little Peter Pan apples. They were even a bit green. These apples were perfect for this Egg-Free Cinnamon and Apple Muffin recipe. Possum has been our quality control master, testing each apple… with just one bite.

Once chia seeds are ready (they should look a bit like frog spawn…), mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. I like to add all dry first to combine then all my wet ingredients. Just personal preference.

It was my wonderful best friend’s birthday this past weekend, and being the amazing friend that I am… I totally forgot. So to make it up to her I baked her a birthday cake. Possum suggested we make a pear cake. I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to make one up, surely. I’ve baked loads of cakes! It had just been so long I couldn’t actually remember what cake batter looked like. But being who I am I just started and hoped for the best.

The cake tasted delicious, certainly one I would happily make again. But I would bake it longer than I did as most of it was still raw. But the edges were great! So here is my modified (with increased cooking time) recipe for Egg-Free Spiced Pear Cake. Enjoy a slice with your best friend (and your other best friend, a dollop of cream!) 🙂 xx

Egg-Free Spiced Pear Cake

2 Tbsp chia seeds soaked in 1/2 cup water for 15 minutes

1/2 cup sugar

75g butter plus another 25g to dot on top of the cake batter

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp No Egg* mixed into 2 Tbsp water

1 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup ground almonds

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 cup plain yoghurt (full fat)

1 tsp bicarb soda

2-3 pears peeled, cored and chopped

1 Tbsp brown sugar to sprinkle on top of cake batter

* No Egg is a potato based egg replacer product. This cake would still work without it.

Preheat your oven to 180°C or 160°C fan-forced. Grease and line a cake tin (i used a circular springform tin, not sure how big sorry!).

Put your chia seeds in water to soak for 15 minutes until they look like frog spawn (mmmmmmm). Using an electric beater, beat together sugar butter, vanilla and No Egg mix. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, coconut, ground almond, cardamom, cinnamon and bicarb. Gently combine. Stir through the yoghurt. Then stir through the butter/sugar mix. Finally stir through the chia seeds.

Cake batter before stirring in the chia seeds

Pour mixture into your prepared cake tin. Sprinkle over your chopped pear. Then sprinkle over brown sugar and finally dot with the remaining 25g butter. Place in the oven to bake for 1 hour. Check with a skewer to make sure it is cooked all the way through. It is a very moist batter so may need extra time.

Ready for the oven!

***Please do let me know how this turns out if you make it! I would love to hear feedback on any recipes I have posted. ***